ABSTRACT

In the Tewa Pueblos, water is life. The Tewa were created under a spring in southern Colorado and they emerged from there with instructions for living from their ceremonial White and Blue Corn Mothers. The Corn Mothers created sodalities to address the natural and social problems the Tewa were having in their new world. The last two social forms they created were the Scalp Society and the Women’s Society that worked together to feed and care for enemy scalps that “cried” as a source of rain that all ceremonies were expected to produce. On the earth’s surface, all bodies of water—springs, rivers, arroyos—are connected and sacred ancestors (Made People) returned to the spring of emergence at death to answer prayers for rain from the living. Other primordial spirits are found here and also answer prayers and accept offerings for rain, good health and fertility from the living. Every Pueblo has one or more sacred springs that is cleaned and kept pure for ceremonies by the Women’s Society members and male assistants. The sacred springs are also the source of domestic water that sustains the living village inhabitants and provides water for agricultural plant growth to feed the people.